Economics

Job Creation

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Employment numbers are improving, but only slightly. Millions of Americans remain out of work or underemployed as the economic recovery continues slowly. Brookings experts look at monthly jobs reports, examine ways to get Americans back to work, and recommend ideas to move the country back to prosperity and economic stability.

Job seekers stand in line to meet with prospective employers at a career fair in New York City (REUTERS/Mike Segar).

Blog Post

Should the United States Have 2.2 Million More Jobs?

May 3, 2013, Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney, The Hamilton Project

Following the last five recessions in U.S. history, the economy added government jobs—an average of 1.7 million, in fact—that helped spur our economic recovery. In contrast, during our recovery from the Great Recession, the economy has shed more than 500,000 government jobs. In this month's Hamilton Project employment analysis, Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney explore the trajectory of public sector employment since the Great Recession. The findings show that if the policy response to this recession had been similar to the response after other recent recessions, the economy would have about 2.2 million more jobs today.

Recent Activity

Refine by: U.S. Economic Performance | U.S. Metro Areas | Unemployment | Labor Policy

  • In the News

    We've been in a very, very slow recovery now since 2009 and what we've been seeing is a very, very slow decline in the unemployment rate... increases in employment that barely keep up with the growth of the population.

    May 3, 2013, William T. Dickens, Yahoo! News

  • In the News

    The jobs that are growing fastest are jobs that don't pay very high wages. Lower-wage jobs are among the most suburbanized.

    April 23, 2013, Elizabeth Kneebone, The Huffington Post

  • In the News

    15 years ago in this country, we thought that [telecommuting] was the death of distance and that it was just going to ruin cities and we didn't see that at all. We see that people really do benefit from face-to-face conversations. Face-to-face conversations are going to be critical for many, many metropolitan jobs. There are many jobs that will require you to be face-to-face. Telecommuting does have a role [but] it's not going to solve all of our problems.

    March 10, 2013, Robert Puentes, WTOP Washington

  • In the News

    The number of unemployed continues to shrink, and job gains entirely in the private sector continue to be fast enough so that we can be whittling down the problem of both long-term unemployment and regular unemployment.

    March 9, 2013, Gary Burtless, National Public Radio

  • In the News

    [Washington, DC's reliance on goverment is] a relatively less dangerous addiction than others. Diversification can never be sold until it’s too late. Complexity breeds resilience. It’s true in natural systems, and it’s true in economics.

    March 7, 2013, Mark Muro, Washington Post

  • In the News

    We don't want to promote a zero-sum competition between regions in the U.S. If we want to focus on advanced manufacturing, as we should, I think the moderately high-tech industries are a good place to start. When companies are clustered together it tends to attract the kind of skilled labor force that they need and attract the suppliers that they do business with.

    February 25, 2013, Howard Wial, ChicagoBusiness.com

  • In the News

    In a way, Colorado was by virtue of its older economy a more equal place than the rest of the United States. But it's just picked up in droves these elements of the national economy and it's now more like a caricature of the United States in terms of the imbalance between the high end and the low end—where the high end is disproportionately employing highly educated whites and the low is probably employing disproportionately, less educated Latinos and African Americans.

    January 21, 2013, Alan Berube, I-News Network

  • In the News

    [While quantitative easing by the Bank of Japan] may have an effect on the exchange rate, it is not the same as outright currency intervention. Moreover, the U.S. would be hard pressed to criticize Japan as the [Federal Reserve] has also resorted to quantitative easing to avoid deflationary pressures.

    January 17, 2013, Mireya Solís, Reuters

  • In the News

    People are very interested in investing in education right now, partly because it’s a tough job market. They can’t find work, and also to get the jobs they’d like to have, they need more skills.

    November 27, 2012, Karen Dynan, Washington Post

  • Expert Q & A | William H. Frey

    America’s Young Adults: A Generation On the Move

    November 20, 2012, William H. Frey

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